A five-point plan for successful attendance management

From policy to practice, planning a strategy for school attendance is an essential part of the attendance manager’s job. In this article, Matt Bromley outlines five stages in the process to improve attendance.

Summary

Consistency in applying policy is essential.

Parents should be encouraged not to condone absence.

Once data is analysed, it must be acted upon.

There are myriad reasons why some pupils cannot or will not attend school, or only do so sporadically. Many of these reasons are outside of a school’s direct control.

Although articulating a theoretical target of 100% attendance is understandable, in practice it is rarely possible to achieve. Schools should be realistic and pragmatic about what they can do to ensure pupils attend.

However,
there are some things school leaders can do to maximise the chances of pupils
attending and doing so on time. They can also ensure that, when pupils are
absent, their reasons are sought and analysed quickly. Lessons must be learnt
and all stakeholders must work together for the good of young people’s
education.

Here
is a five-point plan for attendance success.

Step 1: Policy

Good attendance management all starts
with policy. A school must have a clear policy that sets out its expectations
of attendance and punctuality and explains the procedures that it will follow
whenever a pupil does not attend or is late for school or lessons.

However,
a policy is of no use if it remains no more than a document locked in a dusty
drawer. It must be widely known and understood. The best way to achieve this is
to consult on its contents with as wide an audience as possible. Invite
contributions from staff, parents, external agencies, the local community,
employers and so on.

Once the policy has been consulted upon and agreed, it
needs to be communicated as widely and as often as possible. You could, for
example, include relevant segments of the policy in letters home and make it
easily accessible via the school website. You could distribute it to new
parents through transition materials, enrolment packs and at information evenings.

Having
a policy that is known and understood is only half the battle won. It must then
be put into practice and this means ensuring it is known by staff and followed
consistently by all staff and for all pupils.

One
tangible example where a policy is key is punctuality. You need to answer a few
questions:

What do you mean by ‘being late’? Is it 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 or 15 minutes after the bell?

Are pupils classed as being on time if they attend before the register is closed?

Is the school’s definition of late the same for the statutory morning and afternoon register as for each lesson of the day?

Whatever definition the school decides and includes in
its policy, it must be adhered to by all staff all the time. Inconsistency in
the application of attendance and punctuality procedures will sound the death
knell.

Consistency
is also needed in the use of attendance codes. Staff need to know what code to
use for different types of absence and this should be clearly stipulated in the
policy.

“ Inconsistency in the application of attendance and punctuality procedures will sound the death knell ”

Step 2: Personalise

Having said that consistency is key,
this is not to suggest that every pupil is the same and should be treated the
same. Of course different pupils have different needs and face different
challenges in attending school and being on time.

Whilst continuing to work within the confines of the
policy, it is important to identify the barriers that individual pupils face.
For each pupil who misses school or who is late to school, you should try to
establish what has prevented this child from attending. Is it something at home
or in school? Only by truly analysing the causes can you begin to find workable
solutions. The toolkit on page 18 lists some suggested causes that you may wish
to consider.

Once
the causes of non-attendance are known, the next step is to plan personalised
strategies to help support the pupil back into school. Here it is crucial that
attempts are made to involve, and not just inform, parents or carers and
external agencies in the process.

Without
parental support and understanding, it is unlikely that any strategies will be
effective in the long term. A pupil needs to see that the school and home are
united in a common cause, working together and talking to each other.

Once
the strategies have been agreed, it is important to set success criteria.
Everyone needs to know what a good outcome will look like, how this is going to
be achieved and within what timescales. It may be that step-goals are
established to encourage a gradual improvement over time, accepting that
perfect attendance is an unlikely immediate outcome.

Step 3:
Practice

Once the policy has been agreed and
communicated, and the causes and solutions to non-attendance have been targeted
and personalised, the school must approach the management of attendance and
punctuality with high expectations.

One
way to exhibit high expectations is to promote awareness among pupils and their
parents that an absence results in quantifiable lost learning time. Schools
should try to talk about absence in terms that pupils and parents will easily
understand. For example, that missing a day a week means missing out on two
weeks of lessons each term.

Another
way to promote high expectations is to inform parents about current research
that links good attendance with academic achievement as well as with
longer-term health and well-being. You might even mention improved job
prospects and earnings potential.

High
expectations are also upheld by working in partnership with parents to ensure
they do not condone absences for trivial reasons and know that family holidays
should be planned in school holidays rather than during term time.

One
way to convince parents of this is to explain that teachers plan sequential
lessons and that persistent absenteeism can severely disrupt pupils’ learning.
It is very difficult to catch up on lessons lost and impossible to recapture
the experience of quality first teaching through worksheets or one-to-one
intervention.

High
expectations should also mean taking a zero-tolerance approach to unexplained
absences and following up with parents who have not provided an explanation for
their child’s absence.

If
attendance is to be managed effectively, staff need to be appropriately
skilled. This includes in how to hold difficult conversations with pupils and
parents and may involve training or coaching. It will certainly require high
levels of support from senior leaders.

“ Without parental support and understanding, it is unlikely that any strategies will be effective in the long term ”

Step 4: Data
and intervention

A school needs an effective electronic
system that provides effective data in a timely manner. Here, it is important
that data is monitored ‘live’ rather than evaluated at a later time such as at
the end of a week, month, term or year. If data is analysed as it happens, then
action can be taken quickly.

This
data analysis should include:

trends over time – attendance might still be lower than desired but may be improving

patterns for different groups of pupils such as by gender, ethnicity and learning needs

patterns in attendance over the week, the school year and across year groups.

Having
effective data also enables schools to move towards a data-driven attendance
improvement strategy which enables the early identification of children at risk
of poor attendance.

To ensure data is valid and useful, it may be necessary
to train staff and regularly issue reminders. They need to be aware of the
importance of filing accurate and prompt registers, as well as the appropriate
use of codes. They need to discern lateness from absence in a consistent
manner.

Once
the data has been analysed, it needs to be acted upon and this means providing
intervention and support. It is crucial that schools intervene early if a
pupil’s attendance begins to deteriorate and this includes offering support to
parents if their child refuses to go to school.

Intervention may involve addressing school-based barriers
to attendance such as bullying and friendship issues. It might involve
providing uniform, stationery or textbooks to pupils in financial need and whose lack of resources
causes embarrassment. Intervention may also involve setting up a pupil support
group which explores the reasons for absences and develops an attendance
improvement plan or a ‘return to school’ plan.

Intervention
may take the form of specialist support from external agencies such as health
professionals or enlisting the help and advice of other schools, organisations
and community groups. Finally, intervention may be about enlisting a mentor for
those pupils who are at risk.

Step 5:
Parents

It is important that parents or carers
are not only informed about matters relating to attendance but are also fully
involved in the process. Parents should be regarded as partners in securing
good attendance. In this way they will better understand its importance and be
more able and willing to uphold high expectations at home, accepting any
sanctions or referrals to outside agencies.

One
way to help parents become partners is to use technology to alert them to
non-attendance as soon as it comes to light. For example, text messages and
emails are more effective at flagging up issues as they happen, rather than
trying to make phone contact or send letters after the event.

Not
only is it helpful to consult with parents on the contents of an attendance
policy, it is also wise to collaborate with parents on their child’s attendance
improvement plan or ‘return to school’ plan. Often these plans address
practical issues such as getting an alarm clock, negotiating transport or
changing family routines. Parents are better placed than teachers to ensure
these things happen.

A
partnership is a two-way process of course, and so the school should encourage
parents to seek support from, and communicate regularly with, school leaders
and teachers when help or advice is needed.

Toolkit

Use the following items in the Toolkit to help you put the ideas
in this article into practice:

About Author

Matt Bromley is an experienced education writer, consultant, speaker and trainer. In a leadership career of more than 15 years, he was Group Director of a large FE college and multi-academy trust, acting Headteacher of one of the top five most improved schools in England, Deputy Headteacher of a small rural school, and Assistant Headteacher of a large inner-city school. He speaks regularly at conferences and is a successful author of several best-selling books. You can find out more at www.bromleyeducation.co.uk and follow him on Twitter @mj_bromley email: matt@bromleyeducation.co.uk